This book develops concepts of giving and the exchange of gifts for contemporary art-theoretical discourse. It focuses on models drawn from the theater, visual arts and performance where processes of exchange, transfer, and reciprocity are involved.In light of the performative development of contemporary art, the contributions discuss the extent to which concepts of giving drawn from anthropological, philosophical and sociological perspectives (Mauss, Godelier, Derrida, Latour, Ricoeur, etc.) can be sustained in order to reflect and ethically accentuate the self-understanding of current artistic practice in the creative tension between claims of autonomy and social activity.Authors: Dorothée Bauerle-Willert (Art History), Christine Biehler (Art and Art Education), Mohammadreza Farzad (Theatre Studies), Lili Fischer (Performance), Dieter Hase (Cultural Research), Ingrid Hentschel (Theater Studies), Klaus Hoffmann (Theatre for Development) Klaus Lichtblau (Sociology), Thomas Henke/Christian Christmas (Video and Installations), Marcel Martin (Theology), Una H. Moehrke (Visual Arts), Tino Sehgal (Art), Hanne Seitz (Aesthetic Education), Gerhard Stamer (Philosophy), Ian Watson (Performance Studies), Kristin Westphal (Education), Smadar Yaaron (Theater) and Wolfgang Zinggl (Performance Art)Published on the occasion of the symposium Concepts of gift, 2010, Zentrum für Interdisziplinäre Forschung (ZiF), Universität Bielefeld.English and German text.